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Project

Erroneous additive or proportional reasoning in word problems: Unraveling the underlying cognitive mechanisms of preference

Research has shown that children often make additive errors in proportional word problems, or proportional errors in additive word problems. These systematic errors were recently explained by a preference for additive or multiplicative relations. This will be done, first, by relying on the dual-process theory, which posits the existence and interplay of quick heuristic and slower analytic cognitive processes. In this mandate, we show that children’s preference is heuristic in nature, and that children detect that their preference is in some cases questionable. Second, we rely on the framework of executive functions which describes central abilities required to control our reasoning. We demonstrate that children need the ability to hold information in working memory to overcome their preference.
Date:1 Oct 2019 →  30 Sep 2020
Keywords:additive reasoning, proportional reasoning, working memory, conflict detection, intuition
Disciplines:Instructional psychology and instructional design